(rocket blast)
- What's up Believe Nation?
Today I'm going to talk about the seven stages
that each start-up goes through
to make their first million dollars.
(hip hop music)
So I get a lot of entrepreneurs asking me questions
about how to make their first million dollars.
What are the steps that companies go through?
What are the stages that you need to understand
that most businesses flow through?
And so I thought I'd make this video today
sharing my thoughts on the seven steps
that companies go through
on their process to making their first million dollars.
(upbeat music)
So step number one is you have to have a dissatisfaction
with the status quo.
You have to not like what's happening around you.
Successful entrepreneurs have a big dissatisfaction
with what's currently happening.
They're not happy with the solutions.
They have a problem,
either their own problem or somebody else's problem,
and they're just not happy
with the current solutions out there.
It's the start of every single great business.
There has to be a pain point and a dissatisfaction
with the current solutions out there.
(upbeat music)
Number two is idea generation.
So we have a problem, our own problem, a friend's problem.
We're dissatisfied with the solutions out there.
Now, we got to figure out what's an idea
that's going to work.
What's the winning idea that combines what we love to do,
what we're super passionate, excited about
with what's going to solve the problem?
And there may be multiple ways to solve this problem.
Whatever problem you're facing right now,
there could be a million different ways to solve it,
but not all of them are going to work for you,
and not all of them align with what you're passionate about.
And so at the core of every successful business
is a combination of what there's a need for,
what there's dissatisfaction with,
what pain point people have
with what you are super passionate and excited about,
and combining those things will lead
to a successful idea to launch a business with.
(upbeat music)
Stage number three is, you actually launch your business.
And this is where a lot of people fall down.
A lot of people get stuck in just the idea generation,
in the planning, because it's exciting to plan.
It's exciting to plan and see how we can build
a multi-million empire and what our life would look like.
And we get a high from that.
We get a high from thinking about what our life
could look like, but then we actually have to do the work.
And doing the work kind of sucks a lot of the time.
Most of the time.
And we don't want to do that work cause we want to stay
on that high planet where we're just imagining
that future vision for ourselves.
You have to start.
So many people have great, amazing ideas
and they see other people make money off of it
and you claim that that was your idea.
Well, who cares if it was your idea?
They had the idea too,
and they went out and did something about it.
And so when you have that great idea,
you need to actually start.
Where too many people die with their best ideas
still in them, you need to take action on the idea.
(upbeat music)
Stage number four is failure and adjustment.
A super important thing to understand is most businesses
don't end up the way that they planned.
The thing that actually makes you money,
that has a big impact, that helps you explode,
is very rarely the thing that you start with.
So, it's still important to have a plan.
It's still important to have an idea
of what you're going to do.
But recognizing that that plan is likely going to fail,
so let's get it out there as soon as possible.
And then you need to adjust and tweak
to what the market wants and to what you're passionate about
to build something even better.
It's super important.
Most companies, you look at how they started.
Look at what their first product was
and look at what they sell now.
It's totally different.
And they had the willingness to fail and to adjust.
Hewlett-Packard started selling audio oscillators for films.
And they sold a couple audio oscillators for films.
I don't even know if they still sell audio oscillators.
It's not anywhere close to being
a big part of their business.
They adjusted.
Wrigley's started off in the
baking soda or baking powder industry,
and as a side they happened to give some gum away.
So every case that you bought of their baking soda
or baking powder, you would get some gum with it.
People really liked the gum so he said,
"Huh, why don't we focus on gum?"
And then Wrigley's became this big gum brand.
And so part of success in any business
is recognizing that you need to get through that phase.
That the great idea that you have,
no matter how great it looks in your head,
is not going to be the one that
ultimately guides you to massive success.
It'll be a seed and the seed will have to grow.
And it'll grow by testing the idea, by talking to customers,
by getting in the market and then adjusting.
And too many people make that mistake.
They launch, it doesn't work, and then they quit.
Expect to launch. Expect it not to work.
And then adjust. Fail and adjust.
That will be your path through.
(upbeat music)
Phase number five is extending the idea.
This is where a lot of entrepreneurs also will fall down.
They'll have some initial success with their business.
And now we're talking about the path
to being a million-dollar company.
They'll have some initial success with their business,
but they won't expand beyond it.
Where it's very rare that you could take one product
in one single market and build a million-dollar,
multi-million-dollar company.
You need to start thinking, how do I expand this?
How do I build to more geographic areas?
How do I expand my product reach?
How do I add more features?
How do I create more services?
How do I add a premium line or a budget line?
How do I go beyond my state or my province or my country?
How do I build this thing out?
You need to think about how am I going to extend
my product line,
and a lot of it will come from your customers.
Again, this is just adjusting to what the market wants.
You will find that your customers will take you places
that you never even thought of.
Again, the success in business comes from combining
what there's a need for, what customers want,
and what you're passionate about creating.
So as you get out into the market, one of the best things
you could do is get as close to your customers as possible.
It doesn't make financial sense if you're selling
a $20 product to call each customer
and ask how they're using it.
But it's so important to do because it's going to give you
the feedback on how you can get better.
How you can improve your product
to better serve their needs,
but also how you can extend it because the more you
understand their use, the more you understand their lives,
the more you understand their business,
the more you're going to come up with other creative solutions
that you can sell into them
and then you can sell to a broader market, as well.
The way to expand any business,
an easy, fast, simple way to do it
is to talk to every single customer.
Understand why they bought it.
Understand how they're using it.
And then think about you can expand your market
based on what your customers need or are asking for
and you have a creative solution for.
(upbeat music)
Number six is building a team.
This is another stumbling block
that a lot of entrepreneurs fall back on.
So you had some success.
You built your first product.
You're getting some results from it.
You're expanding. You're building other products.
At some point there becomes a huge crutch on your time.
It's like you can't do more.
Physically.
You just don't have the time.
You're maxed out.
This happens quite early on for a lot of entrepreneurs.
You're maxed out, and so to be able to build
the multi-million-dollar company
or getting your first million, you need to build a team.
You got to bring people on board.
You got to bring on people to help you
get it to the next step.
Even if it starts off part-time.
My first guy was one hour a day.
Started off part-time, moving up, moving up,
moving up, moving up to allow you to focus on
the higher picture things for your business.
Here's what happens in a lot of companies.
You have some success.
You realize you want to build a team.
You hire somebody. Great.
Your first hire doesn't work out.
Usually the first hire won't work out
because you suck as a leader.
You suck as a manager and you don't know how to hire people.
And that makes sense.
If this is the first time you've done it,
don't expect to bring on a star employee
the first time through.
As you work through that process,
you learn how to be a better manager.
You learn how to be a better leader.
You learn how to improve your process.
So that you bring on better people to start with.
But what happens to a lot of people
is they didn't get their first hire right.
And then they crouch back and say,
"You know what, I can't work with other people.
"I just have to do it all myself."
And you can be really successful.
Make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year
as a solo consultant if you're one of the best
at what you do in the world.
But you don't see a lot of million-dollar
consultants a year.
There are a few, but solo million-dollar consultants a year?
You don't really see that happen.
Those guys have a team.
And you need to start to build your team.
If you want to hit a million dollars,
you need to start building your team to allow you
to focus on the higher leverage things.
And expect to make mistakes with your first team members.
Expect to hire the wrong people.
Expect them to make mistakes.
And expect for you to work on yourself
to get better as a leader, manager, recruiter
so you bring the right people on board.
'Cause you need to figure out this piece
if you're going to go off and accomplish big things.
(upbeat music)
And number seven is leading the team.
So, we've hired our first person.
Now we're going to bring on more people and more people
and more people and quickly what you realize
in a bigger company is your highest leverage skill
is going to be getting the most out of your team
instead of the productive work that you do
in your business.
So, let me explain.
When you're first starting off, you're doing everything.
Your value is 100% of the business.
When you hire somebody new to take on a new role,
you might be both working the same number of hours,
but you're maybe adding more value 'cause you're the CEO.
You're the founder.
But let's say it's like 40% them and 60% you.
Or 70% you, 30% them.
Great.
As you add more people, though,
your percentage keeps coming down.
You may be the single most important person in the business
but collectively your team is doing way more than you are.
If I look at this business with this YouTube channel
we've got eight people working on making this channel
happen for you guys every single day.
I contribute the most value.
Sorry, guys on my team.
But I don't do, like collectively, my team does way more
than I do 'cause I can't do all this stuff myself.
And so understanding that you need to not just
focus on what you are contributing to the business,
your day-to-day tasks and activities,
but your most important activity is building up
the people on your team.
'Cause if they get better, your company gets way,
way, way better.
As you continue to build your team,
your value, in terms of the tasks you provide,
become decreasingly and decreasingly important,
because your team takes over much more of the enterprise.
And so shifting your priorities to focusing on your team
and building them up
will have a much bigger impact to help you get to
not just a million dollars, but way through it, too.
So those are my thoughts on the seven stages
that start-ups go through to make their first million.
I'd love to know, what do you guys think?
What point resonated most with you?
What do you need to work on the most
to help you break that barrier?
And am I missing an eight, nine, ten that you guys
want to add to the list?
Share some love.
I'd love to hear from you down in the comments
and help the fellow people of Believe Nation.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
I believe in you.
I hope you continue to believe in yourself
and whatever your one word is.
Much love.
I'll see you soon.